Read Get the best of online shopping for the holiday season, our cover story to understand about marketplace sites, how return & replacement works along with its fine prints and especially to be aware of online fraud. Don’t miss the dos and don’ts to ensure happy online shopping experience.
Moneylife survey had 1,074 savvy respondents willing to share post-Diwali shopping experiences. Of all respondents surveyed, 95% of them gave a 50%+ positive rating to their online shopping experience (chart-5). This confidence probably stems from the fact that e-shoppers are a fairly savvy lot; as many as 72% of them check the credibility of e-commerce sites before shopping, so it is safe to assume that the largest number of complaints come from the 20% who don’t check or the 7.5% who aren’t even sure whether they have checked for credibility (chart-4). Out of 1,074 respondents, 90% of survey respondents will make online purchases in future (chart-6).
The highest responses to Moneylife were from Mumbai (35%) followed by Bengaluru (12%), Delhi (10%) and Pune (7%) as the next three cities that generated significant responses. Books topped the list of online purchases. Our survey showed that electronic items (mainly mobiles) and clothes were next on the list, followed by shoes. Ironically, clothes and electronic items topped the list of products that respondents say they will not buy online. According to our respondents, other products not purchased online are jewellery, food items and furniture.
People are not in favour of online shopping for items that need touch and feel as well as perishable items. Of the 92 respondents who said they do not shop online, 33% said they do not use online shopping because they don’t trust it and 46% need to ‘touch and feel’ a product they buy (chart-2). The two biggest factors for online shopping are: ease and convenience of shopping and price comparison (87%) and discount (62%) (chart-3).
So, which are the most popular online sites? Moneylife’s survey showed that Flipkart is far ahead of the competition for best deals and smooth transactions. Amazon comes next. eBay, Snapdeal and Myntra were others that topped the popularity list. Our respondents vote Flipkart as having the best return & exchange policy followed by eBay, Snapdeal, Amazon and Myntra.
eBay and Snapdeal figure among the top five for positive experiences as well as negative feedback. These two sites are also high on best deals as well as best return & exchange policy. Indiatimes and Rediff rate high on negative experience of consumers.
As many as 39% of respondents to Moneylife’s survey said they had encountered some problems with their online purchases. Of these, 31% said the product was not delivered after payment; this makes COD a better option. Around 46% of these said that the product sent to them was different from what was shown on the site and 33% had received a damaged piece. 39% had a harrowing experience for return & exchange (chart-7).
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Articles outside the subscription period can be bought separately for a small price per article.
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